Released Today: Vaadat Charigim's The World is Well Lost

Tel Aviv’s Vaadat Charigim debut album The World is Well Lost is understated. Simple guitar strums emerge from a low-lying cloud of noise. Drums are pushed to the background while singer/guitarist Juval Haring’s steady stream of baritone strides then tumbles. His syllables topple across the band’s constant pulse. Haring sounds tired, but the never-ending push of The World is Well Lost won’t let him give up.

The self-proclaimed influence for Vaadat Charigim is “a blend of 80s Israeli underground rock with a more European Post-Punk sound, drawing influence from local noise pioneers Plastic Venus, as well as Israeli post-punkers Minimal Compact.” I haven’t listened to any Israeli underground or post-punk, but what I did hear was late-80s Argentinean pop-rock group Soda Stereo who stole heavily from the European new wave movement. I also heard the minimalism of Boris, but instead of aggression exploding outwards, Vaadat Charigim represses their desire to destroy. Each lingering guitar note sustains and fades to black.

A big warm chord launches the opening track “Odisea” from the rising static. The responding glows of reverberant guitar gleam like a fire from a cave. Vocals sustain over each bar, telling a story most likely. If one does not know Hebrew, one still feels Haring’s earnestness. Half the chords are major but the mood is primarily doubtful with slow, melodic, and melancholic turns of phrase. The music doesn’t drag, except for the extensive “Kmo Lahzor Habaita”, where a drum solo ends a repetitive drone of meditative ohms.

The World is Well Lost is out today, November 12, 2013 through Burger Records on cassette, Warm Ratio on vinyl, and Israeli label ANOVA on CD/digital formats. Album opener “Odisea” can be heard below.

Got it from iTunes, just from hearing that Soundcloud sample. And Soundcloud is pretty cool - get what you can before fame and money ruins these guys.

Edit: Selected first 4 tracks and set to repeat - played several times over. I hear a lot of influences going way back, but nothing that would substitute for this. Best indie music I've heard this year.